Handel, John & Ken coming to Orange

Dec. 3, 2009

Updated March 31, 2015 12:13 a.m.

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Program director Jhani Kaye took classic hits K-Earth 101 to No. 1 overall most popular station in Arbitron ratings released Dec. 2.

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John Kobylt, right, and Ken Chiampou of KFI, shown in May at a tax protest in Corona, will be at the Ayres Inn, 3737 W. Chapman, Orange on Dec. 8 to do a live show and encourage donations of non-perishable food and money for the Salvation Army. CARLOS DELGADO, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Program director Jhani Kaye took classic hits K-Earth 101 to No. 1 overall most popular station in Arbitron ratings released Dec. 2.

It was a big week in Southern California radio. First, the news that KFI/640 AM's Bill Handel and John & Ken are broadcasting their shows live from Orange on Tuesday (Dec. 8). Next, the historic news that classic hits KRTH/101.1 FM for the first time ever was No. 1 overall in the Arbitron ratings. Third, John Batchelor, ex-KFI, has replaced Curtis Sliwa on KABC/790 AM.

First, the O.C. news: KFI, FOX 11 and the Salvation Army have joined to collect non-perishable food and money. Handel, John & Ken will be at the Ayres Inn, 3737 W. Chapman, Orange on Tuesday to do their live shows and encourage donations – the location is across the street from the UCI Medical Center.

"All donations go to feed the hungry here in Southern California and every penny goes directly to help," said KFI program Director Robin Bertolucci..

For the first time in the station's history, classic hits K-Earth 101 is No. 1 in the overall Arbitron PPM November ratings released Dec. 2. It scored high in average quarter hour listening, cume (different listeners), and TSL (time spent listening). Overall, its 4.9 share squeaked by and displaced No. 2 Top 40 KIIS/102.7 FM.

Credit goes to program director Jhani Kaye, who joined KRTH Jan. 3, 2006, after a successful run at KOST/103.5 FM. He e-mailed, "To have taken two stations to No. 1 twice in my career is an achievement I'm most proud of. We have the best talent, the best production, the best engineering, and the best support staff in Los Angeles

"It is a real honor to work with so many professionals ... and to have the support of market manager Ed Krampf and president of CBS Radio Dan Mason, makes it all the better. No one could be more proud of a staff than we are here at K-Earth 101!"

Pat Duffy, who ran K-Earth from 1991 to 2004 when he moved over to KNX and KFWB, confirmed this was a first for K-Earth. He e-mailed, "K-Earth was never the No. 1 in overall share. We were always around No. 3 (among) persons 12-plus.

"We came close when we gave away $1,000 an hour for almost a quarter in 1992. We were No. 1 in revenue many times and were No. 1 in (persons) 25-54 for most of the '90s. That was always our goal as it was the money demo and we had little chance against the teen and 18-34 stations since most of our listeners were 30+." Duffy now works with Hitviews, a company creating videos on the Internet and incorporating advertisers into the content of the video.

The November monthly numbers are significant for K-Earth because they span all age groups. It was also No. 1 in 12+, 18+, Men 18+, 35+, and 35-64. It was No. 2 with Women 18+ and No. 4 with Persons 25-54. Individually, Gary Bryan (mornings), Jim Carson (middays) and Shotgun Tom Kelly (PM drive) all achieved #1 or #2 rankings.

Kaye, who also voice tracks a KRTH midnight-5 a.m. show, has all the right skill sets in abundance. He knows how to nurture talent, create high-energy yet family-friendly programming flow, and play an expanded list of what he calls "the soundtrack of Southern California" to keep listeners coming back for more.

Evenings, Christian Kelley does Requests & Dedications. Weekends, it is Charlie Tuna and music built around themes ranging from One-Hit Wonders to the Beach Boys. KRTH's HD2 channel features Kelley with commercial-free hits from the '50s and '60s and Humble Harve with "HD Diner" nightly 8 p.m.-midnight. My favorite way to jumpstart my day – Bryan's Flying Fickle Finger of Fate segment on the morning show.

News KNX/1070 AM is starting to sound like its old self again. It climbed into the Top 10 in the overall Arbitron ratings, achieving a 3.3 share of audience, a nice increase from its 2.5 last August. Director of news programming Andy Ludlum e-mailed, "It was very much a team effort," citing improvements in many key categories. "KNX is on the rise in AM drive – leaping from 2.7 to 3.5 with Adults 25-54 Monday-Friday (6 a.m.-10 a.m.) from 12th to 5th place general market," he said.

KFWB/980 AM's switch from news to talk was a factor, of course, but Ludlum said KFWB is gaining month-to-month with the new talk format. Dr. Laura is showing steady growth in key demos, he added, and its morning news block is rebounding, too, he said.

In other ratings news, country KKGO/105.1 FM tumbled from a 2.8 to 2.3 share. We'll have more on KKGO and other ratings next week.

BATCHELOR BACK

John Batchelor was on KFI-AM, but you can hear him now midnight-3 a.m. daily on KABC/790 AM. He replaced Curtis Sliwa, who couldn't come to terms on a new contract with his station WABC-AM in New York.

Batchelor covers a wide range of national and international topics. I caught his show Thursday. Topics ranged from Afghanistan to the solar system. It's a definite improvement over Sliwa.

KABC program director David G. Hall said of the new ratings, "The big headline from KABC really owes credit to Dr. Laura. The void she left at KFI (from her 3 share to Handel's current 1.2 share with 25-54-year-old listeners) is being filled by our Sean Hannity. At a 1.8 share 25-54, he not only beats Handel 'handily' but I think all of Laura's former listeners are finding him to be a very reasonable replacement. We could not be happier.

"Mark Levin's afternoon show continues to grow, is now at a 1.9 share with 25-54 year old adults. Both Peter Tilden and Frosty, Heidi and Frank also continue to be very strong in their first few rated weeks," he said.

WILL STERN RE-UP?

Will Howard Stern stay with Sirius XM when his contract is up a year from now? Forget the Oprah talk – this is all some people are talking about these days.

Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin spoke recently at a Reuters Global Media Summit and said, "If I were to say yes, we got every penny's worth, Howard would come in with the piece of paper and say 'See, I sold myself too cheap.'"

I'd bet on Stern staying, but I agree with Tom Taylor at radio-info.com that he might get some contract add-ons that allow him to increase his visibility in new media technology..

Larry Elder's rep says no word yet on when his new Web site will debut. ...

A House committee is holding hearings on Arbitron ratings. What does that mean to you? We'll tell you in a future column. ...

Reminder: it is time for you to tell us what you think are the 2009 hits and misses in local radio. Let us know who you miss most on the air, and what you think was the dumbest idea of all in local radio in 2009. When you e-mail, put "2009 survey" in the subject field.

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